This invention relates to roofing materials and their installation.
In the past, shingles made of asphalt, fiberglass, and the like have been provided in flat packages. Each of these shingles typically measures about 3 feet long and about 1 foot wide and is precut so as to form two parallel slits. Extending about half way across the shingle from one of its longitudinal edges, the slits are disposed about a foot apart and divide the roofing material into three tabs. The remainder of the shingle, also known as the uncut slip, includes a face which is usually coated with a thermally activated adhesive material. Activated when the shingles are exposed to the sun, this adhesive is used to hold the shingles in an overlapping arrangement, with one shingle partially covering the other. The shingles are made so that when they are properly installed, the top shingle covers about one-half the transverse width of the bottom shingle and the slits in contiguous overlapping shingles do not align with each other.
When standard shingles are packaged for sale, they are usually sold in packages, each package having a stack of about 27 shingles which cover approximately 33.75 square feet. A protective sheet of plastic or waxed paper is placed between contiguous pairs of shingles to keep the adhesive from bonding them together before use. This protective sheet is thrown away as the shingles are being unstacked, immediately prior to placement.
During a roofing job, it is customary for the workmen to carry an unopened stack of shingles up a ladder, open the package on the roof, remove the shingles one at a time, place them in position and then nail or staple them in place. This procedure tends to generate problems. They arise, in part, because the weight of each stack of shingles, which is about 70 pounds, and its awkward shape make carrying the shingles up a ladder difficult. Also, a stack of shingles resting on a sloping roof can easily slide off of it. Further, individually placing each shingle is a time-consuming chore.
The object of this invention is to provide a shingle that is easier to handle and install. A further object is to provide an inexpensive tool to facilitate lifting shingles to the roof and placing them there.
In the applicant""s earlier invention, there was provided an improved roofing material in which individual shingles are held together, end to end, by a plastic joining membrane or a connector. In the present invention, there is provided an improved rolled shingle roofing material which does not require the use of such a joining membrane. Rather, during manufacture of the material, narrow slots are cut therein at longitudinally spaced apart intervals, each slot extending inwardly from one edge of the material to generally the mid-section thereof. In the preferred embodiment, the spacing between contiguous slots is about one foot in length; and each slot measures, by way of example, about 5 inches long and xc2xc inch wide. With slots so configured, a roof covered with the rolled shingle roofing material according to the present invention closely resembles one covered with standard shingles. The slots allow the roofing material to undergo thermal expansion, extending its useful service lifetime.
The improved roofing material, which is made so that it will not crack or otherwise break when rolled, can be fabricated of one of the newer, non-brittle types of roofing currently marketed in stacks as flat sheets. Prior to installation, the roofing material is wound around a hollow tube to facilitate storage and transport.
To facilitate lifting the improved roofing material to the roof and installing it, there is provided a handling tool including a tube bent into a xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d-shape defining first and second branches and a pair of cylindrical disks each having a centrally disposed hole formed therein for receiving one of the branches of the xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d. In use, the disks are held at the ends of the hollow core of a roll of the roofing material and said branch, inserted through the hollow core and both disks, is held in assembled relation with them by a cap which threadedly engages the end of the tube distal from its handle. In addition, means for attaching a rope such as an eyelet is preferably affixed to the cap.
A roll of improved roofing can be lifted to the roof either by using the handle of the handling tool to carry it or by attaching a rope to the eyelet. With the latter approach, a worker on the roof can easily pull up the roll. Once on the roof, the roll is opened in the area where it is to be installed and fastened to the roof as it is unrolled.